Practice question · Multiple choice
Why did the orders survive the culture that produced them by two thousand years?
Hints
- Ask what an order actually specifies beyond the shape of the capital.
- A system that scales without becoming ungainly solves a design problem.
Show the answer
A. Each is a module system, so fixing the column diameter fixes every other dimension by ratio
Why
Because an order is a proportional system, not a column shape. Fix the diameter and the height, spacing, entablature and every other dimension follow by ratio, so a building can be scaled without becoming ungainly. That solves a real design problem, which is why the orders outlived their religion, their politics and their language.
Practise Architecture II: Reading a Building
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Art History I is free to start.
More questions on Architecture II: Reading a Building
- Which are true of the central-plan church in Renaissance debate?
- An architectural type is a recurring spatial configuration rather than a fixed set of measurements. What…
- A plan is a horizontal cut through the building, so what is drawn solid is what the cut passes through.
- Sort each feature by whether it belongs to a LONGITUDINAL or a CENTRAL plan.
- Complete the vocabulary of reading a building.
- How many orders did Renaissance theory canonise?
- Match each element of a basilican church to its position.
- Arrange these steps for describing an unfamiliar building, in the order that works.
- The orders specify only the shape of the column and its capital.